Talk:The Curtain Descends
Do I get credited or what? :P --'TDG (Talk)' 06:11, July 1, 2011 (UTC) Is Mersery really dead? The Evil Chicken 15:03, July 30, 2011 (UTC) :I don't think CB plans to reveal that just yet. [[User:TheSlicer|'KHA']][[User talk:TheSlicer|'AAA']][[w:c:custombionicle:User:TheSlicer/Nightwatcher's Review Club|'AN!']] 15:23, July 30, 2011 (UTC) Official NRC Review This is how I choose to spend my day when I'm sick at home. You can tell I have no life beyond this website, can't you? XD. Anyway, this time up for the review is one of 's stories, The Curtain Descends. There is certainly nothing happy about this story. Our dear Mersery dies. Millennium, the evil time-traveling entity Mersery has sworn to stop, is still at large. Worse, the killer is completely unknown to all, even to Chicken Bond himself. This story, unusually dark for CB, is actually one of his best works, in my opinion. The plot of this story is quite straightforward. Mersery arrives on the shores of Lake Silencio on an unnamed beach, where he encounters the mysterious killer. The killer kills him, and Mersery dies. For some, that might seem like a bit of an anticlimax. But (The Doctor Who inspiration notwithstanding) the plot is so much more then just the death of Mersery. It's a reflection on the legacy that this powerful being has left behind, his rage and fear against the death he knows he must suffer, a series of flashbacks of the beings he will leave behind as he departs. And when the end finally does come for him, he accepts it calmly. "In a simplistic, empty gesture, Mersery died." He doesn't die a Mary Sue-ish death, saving the world in the process. His killer is not Millennium, or even his servant Dredzek. It is a being Mersery has never seen before, one who kills him for still more mysterious reasons. He dies simply, emptily, still thinking about the few beings who will be saddened by his death. It's certainly not anticlimatic. It's realistically grim, and perfectly executed. Yes, it's a grim ending for anyone (much less Mersery), all around. Of course, as the reader, you can already see that Chicken Bond is foreshadowing for the stories to come. I saw it the first time I read the story, and then I didn't know how Chicken Bond's story would actually end (Yes, I do know the ending. But I'm not telling anyone). Now, onto the characterization and the pacing. What can I say about the characterization that hasn't been said before? Mersery's last moments are touching, sad, and moving to the reader. When he thinks about the friends he's left behind, like Flardrek, or the beings he never was able to make amends with, like Herkain, you feel such acute sympathy for him. CB could not have done this better. Mersery has done so much...yet, at the moment of death, he does not think of his own accomplishments, which seem small and insignificant in the face of his ultimate end. Allow me to salute you verbally for this amazing writing, CB. Now, onto the pacing. The story drags a little. Very, very little. So little, in fact, it's barely even noticeable. But it's there. Otherwise, that's perfect too. The descriptions are as vivid as they could possibly be, but in this story the characterization of Mersery is still more important. Characterization and description fall side by side in this story, and CB does it extremely well. Now, I won't spend much more time on discussing this. But this is a fabulous story, CB. Very well done. While short, this story very acutely describes the feelings of the dying being, a being who has done so much to save the universe, yet also a being who dies an "ignoble, unworthy, inglorious" death, which, while saddening, somehow feels right. More perfect, really, then any other end Mersery could have recieved. '''Overall Grade: '''B+